Originally Posted by Agent Krycek:
“Okay, we have a winner of the FM I'm now most jealous of - one of my all time musical heroes, missed meeting him by a couple of minutes when I went to a festival in Milton Keynes many moons ago”
One of my most treasured memories is meeting Joe Strummer, after the Clash concert at the Manchester Apollo in January 1980. He was absolutely lovely, a real gentleman, just so unbelievably nice.
There were a number of us waiting outside the theatre afterwards for autographs, and I'd managed to get everyone's autograph except Mick's, as Mick hadn't yet appeared. Everyone was waiting ages, it seemed, and there was no sign of him. Most fans gave up waiting and drifted off - but Mick was my hero, and I really wanted his autograph, so I hung around.
Then I saw Joe standing on his own, and I suddenly found myself walking up to him, and asking him if he knew how long Mick would be! Goodness knows where I got the courage from! He started chatting away to me, then told me wait there, and disappeared off.
A few minutes later, there was a bit of a hullabaloo as Mick suddenly appeared near the tour bus, and Joe started waving at me and calling me to come over and get Mick's autograph! I was just so overwhelmed, what a lovely thing to do for a star-struck fan
I'd heard stories from various people that The Clash really were lovely to their fans - I think that's at least partly why so many people love them to this day. They gave loyalty to their fans, and so they received it back
PS Agent Krycek - I am so envious of you (in a nice way!) for having met the Manics! I was a HUGE Manics fan in the early 90s, and went to see them live loads of times. But I never dared meet them - I'd heard they were lovely people, and I really wanted to meet them - but I was always scared that I'd have too high expectations of meeting my heroes, having had the standard set by Joe Strummer, so I never did meet the Manics.
I really wish I had now - I'm sure it would have been beyond amazing to have met Richey